An Australian state lawmaker accused of sending raunchy pictures of himself to a woman stepped down as the head of an ethics committee on Tuesday, apologizing to his family and dubbing the scandal indefensible.

From the Australian ambassador to the U.S. comes quite a press release seeking to clarify comments from foreign minister Bob Carr that Mitt Romney quoted at a fundraiser yesterday about America being "one budget deal away" from erasing talk of the U.S. in decline.